Danny Goes to Disney on Ice!
by lawslave
Summary: Detective Daniel Reagan has endured many harrowing experiences throughout his adult life, but nothing would ever prepare him for this kind of torture...
1. Chapter 1

_How many of you out there have been forced to endure this very same torture? The idea for this story arose from a recent trip to Disney's Frozen on Ice...tix I was forced to purchase almost a year in advance...the things we do for our kids, right? So all it was was a fleeting thought at first, but I did not think it would amount to anything until werks so nicely requested that I go through with it, with all of the sights and sounds of the show fresh in my mind. And who better to take little Amelia Reagan to that kind of event than her loving godfather Danny Reagan! So here it is, 8k+ words of little Amelia cuteness, Danny Reagan snark and a little good-natured ribbing at the end._

Chapter 1

Danny let himself fall back against the length of the couch and let out a heavy sigh. It was the first of two days off from work, his first in almost two weeks after he and Baez led a task force to chase down and finally apprehend the nutjob who had been assaulting young women in Central Park. But his first morning off didn't come without a few requests from Linda before she left for work to get the lawn mowed and fix the weather stripping around the front door. And being the dutiful husband that he was (i.e., not wanting to hear it from Linda later), Danny got his work done during the morning hours. With those two chores completed, he was looking forward to an early afternoon nap before Linda got back from work and the boys from whatever trouble they were getting into.

Danny had just begun to doze while some college football game aired in the background when his phone began to vibrate on the coffee table. A curse erupted from his lips as he turned to eye the invasive device already assuming the worst - that he was getting called into work. With one more f-bomb, Danny palmed the phone and his brows shot up in surprise as Amelia's smiling face popped up on the screen identifying the caller as his kid brother. "Yeah?"

"Danny? Hey, it's me," Jamie greeted.

The stress in his brother's voice was clear and had Danny sitting up on the couch instantly, assuming that whatever was going to come out of his mouth next might be serious. "Yeah, kid, I gathered as much from the caller ID. What's up?" he asked while lowering the volume on the television.

"I need a major favor, man. I got no one else to turn to," Jamie fretted.

"Sure, kid," Danny replied, listening carefully as he began to worry that Jamie might be in some sort of trouble. It had to be bad if he was the only one left to go to.

"It's actually for Amelia," Jamie added.

That brought a frown to Danny's face and his stomach clenched at the thought that his sweet, little love bug might be in some sort of trouble...but how much trouble could a four-year-old get into? "Okay. Is something wrong? Is she okay?" Danny's mind ran wild as he tried to anticipate the problem.

"Right now she is," Jamie said vaguely.

Danny was getting frustrated with the non-answers already as he continued to worry. "Spit it out already, kid!" he barked and regretted his tone instantly. If his kid brother was calling him about his daughter, something big must be going on and his worry now turned to panic.

"Mikey's sick and one of the other Sergeants at the 3-5 banged in sick so I just got called into work," Jamie began to explain.

"You need a sitter or something?" Danny speculated. If Eddie had her hands full with their sick one-year-old, he could understand them needing some help with his little Amelia, although the little girl wasn't much of a handful.

"Uh, well...kinda..." Jamie stammered nervously.

"Jamie," Danny groaned. He now got the sense that they weren't in any trouble, but if his kid brother didn't come clean, he'd still have him on the phone saying a whole lotta nothing by the time Linda and the boys got home in a few hours.

"Alright," Jamie sighed, thinking _here goes nothing._ "Eddie was supposed to take Amelia to a show this afternoon; she got the tickets months ago. Amelia's been looking forward to it all week and with the baby sick and me having to go in, she won't be able to take her," he rambled.

Danny's brow furrowed in confusion. "What show? Like a play or something? Isn't she a little young for the theater, kid? I mean, I know the kid's gonna be a freaking genius but can't you let her have a childhood like every other normal kid before you start forcing the cultural crap down her throat?...She's four for God's sake! And really? You want me to take her?!"

"It's not the theater, Danny," Jamie clarified somewhat. _It was far from theater,_ Jamie thought to himself as he tried figuring out how to ask for such a big favor from his macho big brother.

Danny's brow smoothed out as he was told that assumption was wrong, but he still didn't have a clear answer. "Oh, okay. Then what is it?" he asked, but all he got in return was a quick mumble, Jaime's voice low and unintelligible. "Say again?" Danny frowned.

"Disney on Ice...the Princesses more specifically," Jamie revealed with a whole lot of apprehension, as if his brother would have known that there were a hundred other different variations of the traveling ice show.

"Oh." Danny's eyes widened, his mind going blank at those words. He raised two boys and lucked out on the whole girly princess obsession and except for a few movies about cars and zoo animals, he'd been spared from the money-sucking monster that was Disney, Inc. Of course, there were other crazes directed at little boys that sucked the money out of people's wallets instead, but he had a sneaking suspicion where this was heading now.

Jamie got nothing but silence for several long seconds and he looked down at his phone to make sure the call was still connected. "Hello? Danny? You still there?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still here," Danny said as he rubbed his brow. "What about Erin?" he inquired, searching for a way out of possible torture.

"She's at a conference in Charlotte and she won't be back until tomorrow right before dinner and I know Linda's working today 'cause she and Eddie spoke yesterday," Jamie advised.

"What about dad?" Danny threw out.

"Come on, D. With his detail? I'd probably have to get them tickets too. They're not exactly cheap."

"At least she'd be safe."

"I can't imagine her safer than in the company of her godfather and one of the NYPD's best detectives," Jamie professed.

"Kiss ass," Danny accused.

"And before you say it, there's no way I'm sending Gramps to the Garden with a four-year-old."

"How about I stay with Mikey and Eddie can go? They really should enjoy that together, some mommy-daughter time," Danny proposed.

"Not sure you realize what you're volunteering for there."

"Oh. That bad?" Danny grimaced as several distant memories of his own feverish kids spewing out one bodily fluid or another came to mind. "What's wrong with him?" he asked wearily.

"Stomach bug. I don't think Amelia ever had projectile vomiting like this," Jamie shared, realizing he was probably the lucky one to get called into work, but he'd gladly bare his son re-enacting a scene out of a classic horror flick to spare his daughter any heartbreak.

"Ugh...gross. So my options are getting puked on or being stuck in 'It's a Small World' for...what?...How long is this thing?"

"Two hours, tops. It's at the Garden at 3 o'clock. I'll even spring for the popcorn," Jamie offered hopefully.

"That's real generous of you," Danny deadpanned.

Jamie could tell he had his brother on the hook and went in for the kill. "I wouldn't ask if we had another option and I'd hate to disappoint her. She's already been running around with one of her princess costumes for the last three days, I think it's the one you and Linda gave her for her birthday too. You remember the one, right? It's like a sparkly blue and she put it on as soon as she unwrapped the box and wore it morning, noon and night for a week straight."

Danny sighed heavily. How could he say no? He knew Jamie didn't want to disappoint his daughter, especially because he had gotten called into work unexpectedly. And no one knew better than him about missing moments and events in their kids' lives because of the job, not the major ones but little things like this still mattered too. Danny knew he might not be able to fill Eddie or Jamie's shoes as far as Amelia was concerned, but at least he could make sure she wasn't left completely disappointed. "Alright, alright. I'll take her. It'll take me an hour to get to your place but we should be able to make it on time," Danny conceded as he glanced at his watch and thought about the traffic into the city on a Saturday afternoon.

"Thank you so much, Danny! You don't know what this will mean to her."

"Yeah, yeah, I know kid. Nothing worse than disappointing your own kid," Danny replied. "You owe me a pitcher, at the very least."

"You got it! Thanks, man! I'll tell Eddie to have her ready for you."

Danny looked down at the screen of his phone and smiled at the photo of his goddaughter before the home screen reappeared. At least he'd get a few hours with his niece and he'd be her hero for taking her to see her favorite characters. "So, how bad could it be?" Danny asked the empty room.


	2. Chapter 2

_Now the real fun begins..._

Chapter 2

Daniel Reagan, First-Grade Detective with the Major Crimes Unit of the New York City Police Department stood outside of Madison Square Garden clutching Amelia's tiny little hand in his much larger one and stared wide-eyed at the thriving mass of anonymous figures big and small, pulsating with an inexplicable thrum of excitement mixed with disconcerting dread and resignation. "Holy fu-," he began to say before looking down to meet the big blue eyes of his little niece, "fudge." When he'd picked up Amelia at his brother's place and found her dressed up in her pretty-princess costume, he'd thought it was cute...sweet, even. He thought she might stick out like a sore thumb and turn a few heads, but who was he to tell her to change her outfit? But now...there must have been hundreds of other little girls milling around with their parents wearing the same little blue costume Amelia had on. But some of them, Danny noted, had some freaky-looking white haired wigs on their heads that made them look like they stepped out of an old creepy horror movie he saw once as a kid.

Just about every kid at the Garden was in some sort of costume, but the little blue dress and white hair combo outnumbered all of the others. _What the hell was that about?_ He looked down at Amelia and knew without a doubt that she wore hers the best. And she didn't need some strange wig to complete the costume as her golden blonde hair was perfectly braided to one side. She looked up again and caught him staring, her eyes lighting up as she struggled to contain her excitement.

"Come, on Uncle Danny! Let's go in! Please! Please! Please!" she begged while tugging on his arm. They had to get inside so they wouldn't miss a second of the show and her uncle wasn't moving.

Danny glanced between the crowd and Amelia a few times before turning serious. They had a few ground rules to go over first. "Okay, but you hold on tight to my hand, you hear me, honey?" His brother and sister-in-law would string him up by the privates if he lost their baby in this mess.

Amelia nodded obediently, ready to do anything he said so they could get inside the building where her favorite characters were waiting to skate and dance and sing for her.

Danny nodded, pleased that he had her complete attention. He knew she was a smart kid, carefully taught by her over-protective parents and grandfather on stranger danger and protocol for when you got separated from your family, but considering the crowd before him, it wouldn't hurt to go over the rules one more time. Danny kneeled down on the sidewalk and brought himself to her eye level. "Okay, because there are a lot of strangers here and lots of kids dressed just like you, I need to make sure you know what to do in case we lose each other in a busy place like this. You get lost and I'm not sure how long it will be before I find you, but I would find you," he said, pausing until he got another nod in response from the little girl. "Now, if you and I do get separated from each other, what do you do?" he quizzed her in a calm and even voice; the last thing he wanted was to scare her with these questions.

Danny could see the wheels turning as Amelia searched her brain for the instructions her parents had ingrained in her little mind for such a situation. "Stay put and look for a police officer dressed like mommy and daddy!" she recited correctly.

"Good!" Danny praised her with a smile. "And if you don't see a police officer right away?" he questioned her further.

"I look for one of the peoples in other uniforms that work here and tell them I'm lost and tell them daddy's a police officer at the 3-5 and tell them my name and daddy's name," she replied in one long, drawn out breath as her parents' teachings came to mind automatically, anything to get this over with.

"Perfect!" Danny beamed before asking one final question. "And if some stranger tries to grab you and walk away with you?"

"Scream as loud as I can and kick them in the leg like I'm playing kickball and run!"

"You got it kid!" Danny smiled and planted a kiss on her forehead. He looked forward to the day when she was old enough to learn how to drop a guy to the ground with a swift kick to their privates if they ever tried anything on her. "Okay, hold on tight cause we're gonna have to get through some crowds here."

"Okay, Uncle Danny!" Amelia replied and squeezed his hand as hard as she could as he led her through the large mass of people, then security and, finally, the ticket turnstile until they were inside the confines of bustling Garden.

Danny was scanning the signs, trying to figure out which direction they needed to go to get to their seats while Amelia just took in all of the sights and sounds.

"Uncle Danny, Uncle Danny! They got cotton candy and Olaf!" she shouted excitedly while jumping up and down and pointing toward one of the concession stands.

"O-laugh? What the heck's an o-laugh?"

" _Olaf_ the snowman, Uncle Danny!...From Frozen!" she explained with a roll of her eyes and a silent 'duh!' coming loud and clear that had him picturing his kid brother thirty years ago when he was her age. "He's right there with the cotton candy! Can we get some, pretty please!" she pleaded as she steepled her hands in front of her chin, her big blue eyes begging him to say yes.

"You want some cotton candy?" he asked as he considered whether she was even allowed to eat that stuff.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, feeling like she was about to get a big treat.

Danny shrugged...what the heck. "Okay, well, I guess my job's to spoil you, right?" he reasoned as Amelia shook her head in agreement. "Let your parents deal with the consequences later. Come on!"

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" Amelia sang as she took hold of his hand and walked toward the large display of cotton candy bags complete with snowman hat souvenirs.

As they waited in line, Danny scanned the crowd searching for anything and anyone that didn't belong, but most of the crowd consisted of parents being hauled in every direction by costumed children, most of whom were scrambling for other concession stands and souvenir tables loaded with junk food and cheaply-made, over-priced, licensed merchandise that would be nothing more than forgotten junk by the end of the night. Danny knew that if he could get out of this place with a simple purchase of cotton candy, he could consider himself lucky.

Danny pulled Amelia further along the line for cotton candy when to his surprise, he spotted an open bar just across the busy walkway. _Holy crap, they sell alcohol at these things!_ he exclaimed inwardly. _That was fantastic!_ Danny was trying to make out the brands they had on tap when he took in the customers forming a line for adult beverages and frowned. Jesus...most of them looked like dads who'd been dragged to their executions. Some had kids who were begging them to head off in a different direction, but they weren't budging, ignoring the whines and arm yanking until they held a glass of liquid pain-reliever to help ease the oncoming discomfort. And the others looked like they left their kids in their seats so they could carry twice as much back into the arena.

 _What the hell had Jamie gotten him into?!_

"Come on, Uncle Danny! It's our turn!" Amelia pointed out to her distracted uncle as the customer in front of them stepped away with their purchase to reveal an aloof concession worker who chewed on a large wad of gum about as thoroughly as a grazing Jersey Cow.

"Welcome to Madison Square Garden. How can I help you today?" the young woman droned for the one-hundreth time that day while examining the hang nail on her left ring finger.

"Uh, okay. Yeah. One cotton candy please," Danny requested as he dug into his back pocket for his wallet.

"That'll be fifteen dollars, sir," the woman advised as she yanked on a bag from the hanging display.

Danny's head jutted back in shock; surely he must have heard wrong. "Fif- fifteen dollars? For cotton candy?" he asked while pulling a ten dollar bill from his wallet. "What? Is it spun out of gold?" he snapped, thinking the woman was pulling his leg.

"It comes with a souvenir Olaf hat," the worker added as she pointed to the thin, foam hat shaped like a goofy snowman's head.

"That? You call that a hat? It probably only cost fifteen cents to make in some factory in China where child labor is encouraged," Danny griped.

"Sir, do you want the cotton candy or not? There's a line behind you," she huffed in annoyance.

Danny looked over his shoulder, there was indeed a line of suckers behind him willing to pay fifteen dollars for a ten-cent bag of sugar. And how could he miss the pleading blue eyes of his niece...jeez, he was such a sucker. Danny dug into his wallet and pulled out a five and slammed the money onto the counter as the woman placed the bag and god-awful hat into Amelia's eager hands.

"Thank you, Uncle Danny!" Amelia said politely just as she had been taught and hugged the prized treat close to her body, forcing herself to be patient and wait until they settled in their seats before she tore into the sugary goodness.

"You're welcome, sweetheart," he replied, his irritation melting at the sight of her happy little face. His brother's kids had him wrapped around their little pinkies. God knew no other kids got to him like those two.

And with the world's most expensive bag of colored sugar, Danny led his niece through the throng of people to section 106, row 23, seats 24 and 25. "This is us, love bug," he advised the little girl and bent over to hold down her seat so she could hop on top, but he had not expected for the seat to fold up on her once he let go, almost swallowing her whole.

"Woah!" Amelia yelped, letting go of her snack to grab the armrests.

"Woah, is right there, Amelia! Looks like you still gotta some growing to do before you're big enough for these things." But Danny Reagan was nothing if not resourceful so he balled up the light jackets he'd carried for the two of them in case it got chilly in the arena and jammed them under the arm rest to hold the little girl's seat in place. When he let go, he saw that his little trick had worked and smiled back at Amelia. "You good, kid?"

"Yup!" she beamed as her uncle picked up the fallen bag of cotton candy and placed it on her lap.

"Alright then," Danny sighed and took his own seat. He settled back and did a little people watching as Amelia separated the hat from the bag and promptly slapped it on her head, pulling the elastic string under her chin to secure it in place before impatiently tearing a hole into one side of the bag instead of undoing the twist tie at the top.

"Oy, would you look at that," Danny commented as he spotted a mother and father dressed up in some sort of renaissance-period-type costumes. They escorted their two little girls who wore some purple and pink dresses of their own down the steps just a few sections over. He didn't realize adults dressed up for these things too; did the kids threaten them with harm to get them to wear those things? He'd prefer be tortured rather than dress up like that in public. Oddly enough, those two looked happy as clams to be dressed like two freaks at a kids show.

"How many more minutes 'til this starts, Uncle Danny?" Amelia asked while stuffing a giant ball of sugar floss into her mouth.

Danny tore his eyes from the strange family to look down at his watch. "Fifteen minutes and counting," he announced. He glanced around the Garden and realized they had pretty good seats. The place was also filling up pretty quickly, so it would probably be a packed house.

Amelia hopped off her chair, the sugar already making her antsy along with the excitement that was bottled up inside her. "You want some?" she offered as she held out a puff of candy in his direction while swaying from side to side.

"No thanks, honey," Danny answered.

"You sure?" the little girl queried as she began to smoosh the sticky, melting candy between her fingers.

"Yup," Danny assured her as he tried not to make a face at how the soft puff of sugar was turning into a wet, blue glob before his very eyes. "You eat it up so you're bouncing high when you get home."

"Huh?" Amelia questioned while stuffing the rejected wad of yumminess into her mouth.

"Never mind."

"How many more minutes now?" Amelia asked, her attention back on the bag as she dug for another handful of cotton candy.

"One less than the last time I told you."

"How many is that?" Amelia persisted.

"Fourteen minutes," Danny conceded.

"This is taking forever, Uncle Danny!" Amelia whined. It was not something the well-mannered, easy-going child did very often, so her uncle chalked it up to the fact that she was excited and, well, she was four years old.

"No kidding, Amelia. This can't start and end soon enough...Hey! I got an idea. How about I take a picture of you and send it to your mommy and daddy? I know they wanted to be here with you," he said. And since Amelia Reagan loved to take pictures, he knew it was an easy way to pass a little time.

"Okay!"

"You move right here," Danny instructed her, nudging her over a few inches so that he could get a glimpse of the ice rink in the background as he tapped the camera app on his phone. "Alright. On the count of three, you say-"

"I know, Uncle Danny, I say cheese!"

"Okay, smartypants, one...two...three," Danny said.

"Cheese!" Amelia smiled widely despite the fact that the hat had shifted on her head and partially hid her blue eyes, replacing them with the dark coal eyes of the goofy snowman.

"Hey, good one!" Danny declared; it really was a good pic. "We even got that silly hat of yours in the photo."

"Let me see! Let me see!" Amelia shouted as she leaned into his lap for a glimpse and watched her uncle type out a message on his phone.

 _"You owe me a pitcher AND a steak dinner for this,"_ he included with the message to his brother and sister-in-law.

"How many more minutes now, Uncle Danny?"

"Aye, aye, aye, Amelia Grace. Eleven minutes," he advised her as he read the immediate reply from Jamie agreeing to his demand.

"Okay."

Not so okay, because the next eleven minutes passed with 'how many minutes' being asked at least four more times while he tried reading the latest Jets free agency news on his phone and in between getting up six or seven times to let other people into their row. Until finally, God took pity on him and the lights dimmed in the arena as a deep voice echoed over the PA system to announce the start of the show. Amelia jumped back in her seat, sitting up on her hind legs as she vibrated with excitement. Danny rolled his eyes as the upbeat, inane music began to play loudly. He scanned the entire arena, surprised by how many kids were waving around light up toys - swords and wands with flickering multi-colored lights and wondered how much those suckers cost...probably twice the cost of the damn cotton candy at least! He looked down at Amelia who was dancing along to the music and hoped the show kept her entertained enough to keep her from noticing the garish toys.

With his niece entertained and giving him a play-by-play on each new character that flew onto the ice, Danny settled back in his seat and lowered the brightness on his phone before bringing the sports news site back up to keep himself thoroughly entertained. Danny was half way through an article on salary cap space when he felt a heavy tap on his shoulder.

"Sir! Excuse me," the very large and muscular man seated behind him called out.

Danny lowered the phone and turned in his seat to look into the face of a serious irked individual which had Danny assuming that he must have been forced here as well. "Yeah?"

"Can you please put your phone away? It's distracting us from the show," he hissed at him.

"Say what?" Danny asked in confusion.

"Your phone, sir!" he whispered loudly. "It's distracting me and my kid from the show."

Danny looked around at the hundreds of flashing toys and jumping and dancing children and then more intently at the spinning light up snowman in the hand of the child sitting behind Amelia before giving the man an incredulous look. "Seriously, man? Do you realize where we are right now?"

"Don't make me get an usher!" he threatened.

 _Was this meathead for real?_ Danny asked himself before conceding and turning the screen off. His first instinct was to punch the guy right in the kisser, but the last thing he needed was to get into a fight at Disney on Ice, of all places, and get arrested or, at the very least, get escorted out of the place with a disappointed and, more likely than not, frightened and crying four-year-old in his arms. Danny gave the self-satisfied man the evil eye before turning around with a serious scowl on his face. _Now what the hell am I supposed to do?_ he whined inwardly as he brought an elbow up onto the armrest and dropped his head into his hand, not realizing that he had found the perfect pastime, because Danny Reagan closed his eyes and, within minutes, was lulled into a light and relaxing doze by the ridiculously cheerful music, a doze just like the one he had been in when this nightmare first began. But just as his first attempt to nap had so rudely been interrupted by his little brother's pleading request, this go-around at a nap was nipped in the bud by his little niece's excited voice.

"Uncle Danny!"

"Yeah?" Danny grumbled, staying in the semi-comfortable slouch he'd settled into.

"Look! It's Cinderella!" she squealed while reaching back to tap his arm.

Danny cracked open one eye and saw a floating poof of blue fly by on the ice and forced a smile onto his face to appease the happy little girl. "That's fantastic, Amelia," he yawned. And so went the next forty minutes with Danny Reagan doing his damnedest to sleep through the now migraine-inducing music with at least four more interruptions from Amelia announcing the arrival of the next princess. After cracking an eye open for Rapunzel, Danny finally succeeded in falling into a light sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Danny wasn't sure how long he dozed, but it didn't feel like it was very long when Amelia's pleading cries suddenly broke through his consciousness.

"Uncle Danny! Uncle Danny!"

"Mmm?" Danny moaned, not wanting to wake fully until the nightmare was over and he didn't care how many new princess came flying out from behind the curtain.

"Uncle Danny!" Amelia repeated, this time with a few urgent pats to his head.

"What, sweetie?! What?!" Danny whined as his eyes slipped open.

Amelia was standing next to him bouncing up and down and doing the dance that all parents knew could only mean one thing, but she didn't hesitate to spell it out for him just in case it wasn't clear. "I gotta go number one!"

"Oh, no...really!?"

"Yes! Please , Uncle Danny! I gotta go potty real bad!" she pleaded while squirming uncontrollably.

"Jesus! Let's go kid!" he ordered while grabbing Amelia's hand and leading her up the stairs as fast as her little legs could manage, snapping his fingers at one of the ushers milling about the main corridor of the arena. "Bathroom! Hey! Where's the closest one?!"

The lackadaisical usher barely had his hand up and pointing to Danny's left before he scooped Amelia up into his arms and sprinted down the corridor searching for the restroom signs. Maybe picking her up while she was straining to hold it in wasn't his best idea, but he figured it was the fastest way to get there. One minute later, they were standing in front of the bathrooms, but Danny Reagan didn't know where to go. He was no stranger to the Garden and there was no way in hell he was taking his sweet, little Amelia into a grimy men's restroom lined with urinals...sure this wasn't the usual rowdy, drunken sports crowd and he'd been forced to use many restrooms much scuzzier than those here at the Garden, but no way, no how was she going in there. Danny turned to consider the consequences of running into the ladies' room, which he could only imagine as an immaculate haven lined with wide stalls stocked with potpourri and plush three-ply bathroom tissue. But he couldn't risk getting arrested for that either and there was absolutely no way he could let a little four-year-old girl in there by herself. He was _Frozen_ with no idea on what to do, fearing he'd soon have a bigger problem on his hands...literally.

"Uncle Danny, I can't hold it anymore!" Amelia whimpered, dumbfounded by his lack of movement.

But someone up there must have been watching over them, because soon there was an angel standing behind them.

"It looks like you two could use a little help," an older African-American woman wearing an usher's uniform and an understanding smile commented to the pair.

"What?" Danny asked, turning to face her as he placed Amelia on the ground where she continued her pee-pee dance.

"Your daughter," the usher nodded to the writhing child, "she needs to use the bathroom, I take it?"

"Uh, yeah. She's my niece, but yeah, she needs to use the bathroom, but," Danny paused as he looked back over his shoulder at his choices.

"Don't you worry, my dears. Just follow me," she instructed and walked away without another word.

Danny followed obediently but panicked as they moved farther and farther from the restrooms with no idea of where they were going or how long he had before Amelia would burst. "Where are we going? I really got to get her to a bathroom."

"Family bathroom," the kind lady replied as she led them to the other side of the corridor, away from the more public restrooms and to a door with a sign that had male, female and child stick figures. "You came at a good time since most everyone is still enjoying the show. You'll have it all to yourself and there's no line, something that never happens at these things. You're not the only man bringing a little girl by himself, " she chuckled. "Lots of single daddies and loving uncles here today."

A relieved Danny ushered Amelia toward the door of the more private family bathroom. "Oh, you are an angel, uh," he began to say, realizing he didn't get the woman's name.

"Margaret," she smiled back with a tap to her nameplate.

"Margaret?" Danny repeated.

"Uncle Danny!" Amelia bellowed with a pained expression.

"Well? What are you waiting for, Uncle Danny?" the older woman laughed. "Get her in there or you're gonna be buying that child a whole new costume for the ride home and let me tell you something, they ain't any cheaper in here," she warned.

Danny shook his head and sent her a kind smile in return. "Thank you! Thank you, Margaret!" he replied through the diminishing gap of the closing door.

"You're welcome, honey."

* * *

After a trip to the family restroom and a couple of hotdogs at intermission (of which Danny ate one and a half), both uncle and niece returned to their seats to await the start of the second half, which for Daniel Reagan, considering that his niece was fed and should be good for another hour or two (he hoped) without the need to go potty again, meant that he could try to snooze through the rest of the show...but Amelia had other ideas.

"Uncle Danny!" she shouted with a hard tug of his sleeve when the music began. "It's Ariel!"

Not sensing any true alarm in the little girl's voice, Danny remained still with his eyes closed and his head resting against the back of his chair. "Who's Ariel?" he mumbled.

"The Little Mermaid!" Amelia replied excitedly, but not even that was enough to fully rouse her chaperone. He was not willing to budge an inch unless absolutely necessary. Danny Reagan had long ago learned how to nap in the noisiest settings and he was finding this about as equally cacophonous as marine barracks, a wore-torn country in the middle east and the shoebox in the middle of the squad he'd bunk in from time to time when he needed to catch twenty winks. But not even his talent for sleeping in the most harrowing of environments would help him when the little chatterbox sitting alongside him insisted on engaging him in conversation. "Guess what!"

"What, Amelia?" Danny sighed, continually amazed by the amount of patience he had with this child, immense compared to the patience he had with his own children.

"No. Guess, Uncle Danny!" she ordered while her eyes continued to follow Ariel and Sebastian as they sailed across the ice.

"The Disney empire is a genius, brain-washing, money-sucking machine?" he cracked.

"Huh?"

"Nevermind...Just tell me sweetheart. Your Uncle Danny's brain checked out back at security."

"Ariel is mommy's favorite princess!"

"Is that right?" Danny said with some intrigue and rolled his head toward his goddaughter. Unfortunately, he had to straighten up in order to do a full turn in his seat and glare at the complete antithesis of what a Disney fanatic should be after the lunkhead had the gall to shush him and Amelia as his own kid blabbered on next to him.

"Yeah! She always watches Little Mermaid with me!" Amelia said, stopping only to sing a few chorus lines of the song blaring from the speakers. "She knows all the songs and words too!"

Determined to keep his niece talking just to annoy his neighbor, Danny said, "Well, I'll have to remember that." He couldn't picture his sister-in-law sitting in front of the TV watching children's movies, but he knew you sometimes had to do those things for your kids. "I didn't think your mommy liked all the girly stuff. Tell me more, sweetie."

"Mommy said she loves to watch the Little Mermaid more than me. She said she had the movie looong before I was born and has the music on her iPod so she can listen to it whenever she wants, but she said it was a secret and not to tell daddy," Amelia prattled on.

"So it's okay to tell me?" Danny asked.

"Uh huh," Amelia answered. "You're not daddy."

Danny smiled at the preschooler, knowing that they were all going to have to be careful with her. "No, sweetheart, I'm not. But don't worry, I won't tell him either," he promised.

Danny smiled as Amelia continued to sing along. It might not be the way he would have wanted to spend a Saturday afternoon, but he guessed there were worse things than this...just not many.

"I wish mommy was here," Amelia sighed with a hint of melancholy when Ariel began to belt out the song that her mom sang the best, especially when she pulled out a dinglehopper to brush her hair just to make her giggle.

Danny grimaced at her words. He'd been complaining the whole time he'd been here and had forgotten that this was supposed to be something special that the little girl should be doing with her mother. He liked to think that Amelia loved to hang with him, but he knew he wasn't her or anyone's first choice of companion to an event like this. "I know, sweetheart. She really wanted to come along too, but since your daddy had to go to work she needed to stay with your little brother," he told her, hoping she could understand.

"Little brothers are a pain," Amelia commented, laying blame on Mikey for her mother having to bail out.

Danny smirked, feeling the same way...most of the time...well, more so when he was younger, no so much anymore. But he didn't want her resenting her little brother for getting sick and keeping their mother at home. "Don't I know it...But hey, you love your brother, right? I've seen the way you play with him and take care of him like he was your very own little baby," he said, turning around to shush the little monster that was now causing a raucous behind them and interrupting their heart-to-heart.

Amelia shrugged but didn't answer, preferring to gaze at the performers below.

"Your little brother needed your mommy a little more today because -"

"'Cause he was sick," Amelia finished for him.

"That's right! And she would have done the same for you if it had been you feeling all yucky, right?"

"Yup," she agreed with a nod and a small smile.

"Good girl! Now watch the rest of the show, love bug. If I'm lucky, there's not much more left."

"Uncle Danny?"

"Yes, Amelia?"

"I'm happy you came with me!" the little girl beamed back at her uncle just as she flung her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Danny's heart melted into a puddle, his arms going around the little girl as he breathed in her sweet scent. It made him wonder what it would have been like to have a little girl of his own. Danny pulled Amelia over the armrest between them and placed her on his lap. "How about we watch the rest of this together, huh?" he asked, dropping his chin onto her shoulder to get the same view she had of the magical performance (or at least that's how they described it).

"Okay!"

* * *

 _A lot of you thought something bad might happen to poor little Amelia during Danny's snooze, but I just couldn't hurt her..maybe I need to get back to torturing Jamie like I usually do. LOL!_

 _One more chapter to go...Sunday dinner, of course._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Frank laid his napkin across his lap as the rest of the family began to pass dinner around the table. When his eyes landed on his youngest granddaughter who sat between her parents, he decided there was no better time than the present to debrief the little girl on her outing the day before. Most of the family knew that Danny had spent Saturday afternoon with his goddaughter, but no one seemed to know any of the specifics. Danny certainly had not been forthcoming with many details, even with Linda, and Jamie and Eddie had been so grateful for his help, that the only thing they had been willing to offer was 'Danny' and 'Disney' at the Garden which was a combination of words no one would ever consider using in the same sentence. But that only made them more curious, so Frank put on his detective hat and decided a friendly, little question and answer session with his sweet, little granddaughter was in order. "So, Amelia, I heard you had a nice little outing with your Uncle Danny yesterday," he began.

That got various members of the family to perk up with interest while his oldest scowled back at him, knowing full well what his father was up to. Jamie knew where his father was going as well and pursed his lips to prevent a smile from forming. He and Eddie had obviously gotten the full rundown of the show from their daughter...every minute detail that the excited preschooler had been able to recant.

"Yup!" Amelia replied cheerfully with an enthusiastic nod of her head that had her pigtails bouncing around as she watched her father cut up the chicken on her plate.

"Where'd you two go?" Erin asked. She had come straight from the airport, arriving at the house just as everyone was getting ready to sit down for dinner, so she had not caught wind of Amelia and Danny's afternoon out on the town.

"Nowhere," Danny snapped, hoping to stop this topic of conversation before it even got started, but the preschooler still carried some residual excitement from the prior day and was more than happy to recount their experiences with the rest of the family.

"Disney on Ice! We saw all the princesses!" Amelia announced with delight.

Erin did a double take and stared at her older brother in confusion. "Disney on...Danny?" she asked, but the smirks and snorts she got back from a few members of the family answered her question, she just didn't understand how or why that came about. "I thought you were taking her, Eddie?"

"I was until this little guy got sick and Jamie got called in to cover for another sergeant," Eddie explained as she laid out small pieces of toast and bananas out on the tray of Mikey's highchair, which the baby quickly scooped up about as quickly as his mother dispensed them. He'd woken up feeling better that morning, hungry and asking for 'nanas' which was Michael Joseph Reagan code for 'feed me,' but they were keeping his diet bland just in case. Their goal for the day was to make sure everyone kept their food down.

"So you..." Erin trailed off and stared at her older brother in disbelief.

Danny stabbed a chicken breast from the platter with a little more force than necessary and plopped it onto his plate as he glared back at his sister. "Yes."

Erin shook her head as a smirk spread across her own face. "What I would have given to see that."

"Me too," Henry snorted, his smile growing when he caught Frank's own from across the table.

"Get in line. I think we all would have loved to have seen that," Frank added.

"Really?! Danny huffed, annoyed that everyone seemed to be enjoying this way too much.

Jamie and Eddie traded grins as well. They would have been first in line, but considering the huge favor Danny had done for them and their little girl, they chose to abstain from the good-natured ribbing the detective was about to get from the rest of the family.

"There was nothing to see," Danny grumped as he got himself ready to dig into his dinner.

"Naw ah, we saw a lot! Remember, silly?" Amelia sing-songed to correct her uncle.

"So you had a good time, sweetheart?" Linda asked her goddaughter, not reacting in the least to the heated glare coming from her husband.

"Yeah! Uncle Danny got me cotton candy and an Olaf hat too!" Amelia reported.

"That was very sweet of your Uncle Danny," Frank commented.

"I was especially grateful that she'd already come back down from the sugar high by the time she got home," Eddie remarked as she tended to Mikey who was happy to pass some of his toast to his great grandfather next to him.

"You're welcome," Danny threw back, although his plan was to return the kid while she was still bouncing high but it backfired on him and he'd ended up carrying Amelia from the car to his brother's place as she drooled on his shoulder.

"And how was the show, Amelia?" Nicky prodded.

"Why are you all interrogating the poor thing?" Danny snapped, pretending to look out for the child when he really just wanted to spare himself some grief.

"It was the best! I saw Cinderella and Rapunzel and Elsa and Anna..."

"How many are there?" Jack wondered while Amelia rambled on.

"...and Snow White and Belle and Mulan..."

"The list goes on and on, apparently," Henry chuckled.

"...and Jasmine and Aurora."

"Who knew?" Sean said.

"Well, now your father does," Linda smiled.

"You still owe me, kid," Danny reminded Jamie and he intended to collect.

"I brought you a good bottle of scotch," Jamie pointed out. He knew he promised him beers and a steak dinner, but he didn't want to show up empty-handed considering how Amelia had gone on and on about the great time she had with her uncle, claiming that he had loved the show as much as she had. Knowing his brother the way he did, he knew Danny had to put on a tremendous front to please his little girl.

"That was worth more than just one bottle of scotch," Danny argued with narrowed eyes.

"Did your Uncle Danny like the show too?" Erin asked, not wanting the fun to end.

"He did! But Uncle Danny was tired," Amelia said while pushing the food around on her plate.

"Why do you say that?" Nicky asked her cousin.

"I explained to her that I had worked a lot the whole week before," Danny jumped in to explain.

But much to her uncle's chagrin, Amelia jumped in to share his attempts to nap through the afternoon...apparently what happened at Disney on Ice, didn't stay at Disney on Ice. "He kept falling asleep so I had to wake him up when a new princess would come out so he wouldn't miss it," she told the table of mostly amused adults.

"That was very thoughtful of you, sweet pea," Jamie praised his daughter.

"He even made friends with the daddy behind him," Amelia revealed.

"Did he now?" Frank smirked, knowing that Danny was not one to easily make friends with strangers.

" _You_ made a friend?" Erin asked incredulously. "At a Disney ice show?"

Danny rolled his eyes, willing to tell them about the shushing weirdo sitting g behind them. "Oh yeah, the meathead dad behind me...let's just say, he was a real fan of skating princesses, couldn't bear to miss a minute of the show. Somehow he had it in his head that an arena full of toddlers would keep their traps shut during a show, not that you could hear them over the migraine-inducing music blaring over the PA system."

"What's a meathead?" Amelia asked with a grimace...whatever it was, it didn't sound very nice.

"You should explain that one, Uncle Danny," Jamie insisted with a raised brow, silently letting him know it better be G-rated.

Danny looked around the table, all eyes on him, even Amelia's as they waited for an explanation suitable for the young girl. "Well, uh, it's a guy that, uh...likes to eat steak...lots of it."

Amelia's brows crinkled as she considered her uncle's explanation when suddenly they shot up in understanding. "Like you, Uncle Danny!" she squealed, thinking of all the dinners where he'd sat across from her eating his meat faster than he could chew it.

"From the mouths of babes," Henry chuckled alongside the rest of the family.

"That's exactly right, Amelia. You are one smart cookie," Erin proclaimed with a grin aimed back at her older brother.

"Hey, I did a good thing and spent a mostly nice afternoon with my niece, the company was certainly better than the entertainment," Danny pouted.

"You did do a very nice thing, Danny. Thank you," Eddie said in all sincerity, wanting to spare her brother-in-law any more torture for his good deed.

"You're welcome," came the reply before Danny turned back to his meal.

The rest of the family followed suit and utensils striking dinner plates was the only sound heard in the dining room for several minutes.

Until Erin broke the silence. "I heard the circus is coming to town in a few weeks."

An excited gasp burst from Amelia's mouth. "The circus?! Can we go?!" she squealed, looking into the face of her uncle who sat across from her.

"Whatever day that is, you better have proper back-up and make sure one of _them_ is free," Danny warned his brother as he pointed his fork at the others sitting around him.

* * *

 _That's it for this one. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed._

 _Not so sure when I will update Baby Steps again; the ideas are there, but the words aren't flowing out of me very easily. Maybe I need to step back from the fluff and explore a more angsty story line. We'll see..._


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